Second Watch
by Kick Flaw
Summary: Wherein Koushiro sleeps, Joe sleeps, Matt sleeps then wakes up then sleeps again, and Tai gets something out of all of this. -Taito.


Title: Second Watch  
  
Author: Kicks (kick_flaw@hotmail.com)  
  
Archive: fanfiction.net under Kick Flaw  
  
Pairing(s): Taito  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Warnings: pointless fluff  
  
Feedback: Please, please, please, please, please!  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. If I did Iori wouldn't exist, the Teenage Wolves would be in Warp Tour, Sora would be a lesbian, Matt and Tai would be writing each other wedding vows and Daisuke would've slept with everyone under 20. Twice.  
  
Notes: Hmmm.had a ball with this. I think it turned out more humorous than I expected though.  
  
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1 Second Watch  
  
Oh yeah, Tai thought cynically, let's spend the night in the Digiworld. Great idea. It'll be fun! We'll bond, just us guys. God, he wanted to strangle Koushiro. Since when had the little computer-nut actually wanted to bond with anything not composed of microchips and pixels, anyway?  
  
Stupid him. He'd agreed. Hell, he'd gotten Matt and Jyou to agree too. Figures he'd be the one who got relegated to second watch. Everyone hated second watch. First watch was cool --all you had to do was stay up when everyone else went to sleep. Third watch wasn't as cool, but it was still cool -just required getting up early and waking the others. Second watch was the killer. You had to go to sleep, get up, and then go back to sleep all in one night. Damn it.  
  
Then again, no watch was the best. Hey, if they hadn't come on this ill- fated expedition he wouldn't be 'watching' at all! Stupid Koushiro. Stupid Matt and Jyou for letting him persuade them.  
  
Brushing his hair out of his face, Tai took a moment out of his self-pity to observe his three companions. Koushiro was directly across the fire-pit from his seat, snuggled deeply within his green sleeping bag; even snoring lightly at perfectly timed intervals, his rest peaceful and sedate. The jerk.  
  
Jyou, who'd taken first watch, was encased completely in his one-person, three-layer, waterproof, wind-proof, evil-Digimon-attack-proof (supposedly) tent. It stood, small and indiscreet, about five feet to his right. Due to lack of movement, Tai assumed Jyou too was enjoying an uninterrupted sleep. Jerk.  
  
And last, stretched out at his left side, his best friend. Matt was excused from taking a watch, mainly because he'd griped so loudly about having to do all the cooking. Tai didn't begrudge him that though. He ate better when Matt cooked than at a five-star restaurant. The blonde boy was splayed all haphazardly within and without his unzipped black sleeping bag, one arm thrown above his head, the other lying innocently at his side. The top layer of bedding had been dragged down to his waist, leaving his shirt-clad chest exposed, and a single foot stuck out at the end, barely clothed in a loose sock clearly intent on escape. His relaxed face was turned towards Tai, more remarkable than normal only because of the shadows, which cut and edged each line dramatically. It was an oddly vulnerable, yet sharp, image. Eyelids, traced with blonde lashes, topped by thin, blonde eyebrows, fluttered slightly, nearly echoing the soft, breathy movements of his mouth as it drew in and released air in rhythm.  
  
Tai knew he was staring. He knew he was smiling in that strange, warm way he did when he stared at Matt. But that was ok, no one else was up.  
  
He shifted so that he was facing the other boy, idly tearing up grass and scattering it as he considered. Koushiro was dead asleep. Jyou couldn't have seen or heard him even if he wasn't. And Matt didn't look like he was too aware of reality at the moment. It couldn't hurt...just a little...and no one would know...  
  
--Whoa. No. Tai shook those thoughts away quickly, tossing them down and stomping them thoroughly in his mind. Bad Tai. Bad Tai.  
  
But...really, what harm could it do? It's not like it would hurt anyone. And it would make him at least a little bit happier. Why not do it?  
  
A few more handfuls of grass gave up their lives. Intermittently, one leafy strand would catch in a passing breeze and spin randomly before settling. One in particular lifted slowly, danced a little dance of flight, and subsided onto Matt's pale cheek; there it grasped eloquently at the diagonal slice of the cheekbone, beckoning.  
  
What the hell? Tai gave in, brushing the piece of grass away with a light stroke of his fingers. He shifted again, moving with extreme caution to his knees. Then braced himself, licked his lips and leaned, leaned...  
  
...down...  
  
With a warm exhalation and the barely there touch of lips to skin, it was done. Tai bit his bottom lip, just to see if he could catch the texture, the taste. No, it'd been too brief. Damn.  
  
He could always...maybe...try again?  
  
Ok. Firming his resolve, Tai determined that this time he'd actually get something besides a faster heartbeat out of this. He took Koushiro and Jyou's state of sleep into account again. No problems there. Deep breath and-  
  
He probably should have reevaluated Matt too. People just can't get that close to you without waking you up. Unless you're a log. Or a rock. Whatever.  
  
The instant after he'd pulled back, savoring the clean coolness that dazzled his lips, the blonde's eyes flew open. Tai started. Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. Oh, no. Excuse, excuse, damn it, he needed an excuse!  
  
"Uhh..."  
  
Matt sat up slowly. Matt blinked. Matt stared at him with puzzled blue eyes, slightly dazed by sleep and the early-morning hour. "Tai?" he asked with the confused tone of a sleepwalker upon encountering a cat.  
  
Tai gulped. "Yeah?"  
  
"You kissed me."  
  
'No, actually, I was inspecting your inner ear for a colony of very rare, parasitic alien-slug' was what Tai wanted to say. He said: "Did not."  
  
Matt frowned. His words gained force. Not 'I've regained my senses' force, more like 'I'm a petulant five year old who isn't really sure what's happening but is holding on stubbornly anyway' force. "Did too."  
  
"Did not."  
  
"Did too!"  
  
"Did not!"  
  
"Oh. Ok."  
  
Dumbfounded, Tai watched as Matt calmly lay back down, pulled his covers up and returned to sleep without another word.  
  
Weird.  
  
O...k..., he thought, arching his eyebrows. The blonde was facing away from him now, he couldn't make out his features, and his body was merely a lump under black cloth. A strange end to a strange experience.  
  
Still, he couldn't help but smile and lick his lips a little. He'd gotten a kiss. It was on the cheek, albeit, and yes, his crush had been mostly asleep, but a kiss was a kiss. It was a start. Maybe next time he could go for the mouth.  
  
If there was a next time. Tai tried halfheartedly to glare at Koushiro again, but was too satisfied with everything to hold it against him anymore. But damn him if he was going to admit this trip was a good idea. What had possessed them to spend the night in the Digiworld? A death wish?  
  
Second watch. He always got into trouble on second watch. He knew it. Everyone else knew it.  
  
Maybe that was why they'd given it to him.  
  
El'Endo  
  
  
  
Sooooooooo.reviews would be nice.I have an alternative lemony ending written for this. If anyone wants me to post it, just say so, k? Thanks. 


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